11 Tips to Always Keep Your Social Media Content On Brand

As with other marketing efforts, social media can sometimes be a challenge because it has to balance customer appeal with staying true to its brand promise. But with so many social media platforms, trends and opportunities for innovation, it can be easy to let the brand message get lost along the way. So how does a company keep all of its different social media profiles and content on brand with each and every post? Below, 11 experts from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) examine the following question:

“What’s one one tip you have for companies looking to keep all their social media content on brand, and why is this important?”

Follow these tips to ensure your social media is in line with your brand message across all channels.

1. Be Authentic to Yourself

“I think the key is being authentic to yourself and your brand. That can go a long way. The other part is molding that to the particular social media you’re using. You can still be yourself across Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, but you have to do it in a way that works for that particular platform. I think being authentic is going to shine as a throughline across your content.” ~ Sean Ogle, Location Rebel

2. Create a Style Guide

“It’s important for a business to create a style guide that team members can refer to when creating social media content. A style guide can include your brand colors, graphics and guides on the tone of voice that your brand should be associated with. A simple document like this can help keep your social media content looking cohesive.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

3. Define the Key Outcome

“Define the key outcome your social content should project once it goes live. The format or the style may vary, but the end goal should be consistent. The right message, company values or vision across the company should pertain across all channels and posts.” ~ Mario Peshev, DevriX

4. Document Everything

“Ensuring that all branding efforts, past works and future projects are well documented is essential to keeping the content on brand. It helps reduce confusion on what the brand voice should be, who the target audience is, what design styles are to be used, and helps ease the transition from one social media content manager to another.” ~ Diana Goodwin, MarketBox

5. Establish Content Pillars

“One tip we have for companies looking to keep all their social media content on brand is to establish content pillars of what they’re going to publish on social media. The content pillars highlight the main topics they want to drill when talking about their brand, with key messages and brand values.” ~ Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

6. Study Available Platforms

“Study current and upcoming platforms and identify which ones are a good fit for your branding. Otherwise, creating an account is a waste of time and money. For example, Facebook has advertising software and algorithms you can use to identify and reach out to a target audience. The Pillowfort site is currently offline, but when open to the public it may help you reach entire segmented communities.” ~ Duran Inci, Optimum7

7. Create Multiple Personas

“To keep all your social media content on brand, it helps to create multiple marketing personas. Marketing personas are also known as buyer personas, which outline details about your target audience. Because different users use different platforms, you can better market to the different groups of your audience and still keep your branding aligned.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

8. Use Social Media Management Tools

“Consistent messaging is vital for social media branding. Tone, visuals and purpose need to be combined in a cohesive way. This is a lot for a team to juggle. That’s why we use social management tools to centralize our ideas on a signal dashboard. Once the ideas are approved, posts go live and the engagement is analyzed to improve future posts. Using tools helps us stay on message and be creative.” ~ Shaun Conrad, Guitar Repair Bench Online Lessons

9. Ensure Visual Consistency

“Make sure your visual aesthetic is consistent across all of your social media platforms. The logo, colors, fonts, images and layouts should match so a customer or client can identify your business at first glance.” ~ Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

10. Link Your Website and Feeds

“You can keep your social media on brand by linking your website and feeds. When people visit your business page and see your Facebook feed in the sidebar, they are more likely to follow you, especially if you include a follow button right next to it. Now, when they see your posts while browsing Facebook, they will remember your website and will likely return.” ~ John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC

11. Encourage User-Generated Content

“The best way to keep your social media content on brand is by encouraging user-generated content. For instance, you could encourage your followers to share photos of themselves enjoying your product. Not only do you get the benefit of engaging with your audience, but you’re also getting branded promotions from people who genuinely love your product.” ~ John Turner, SeedProd LLC

Image: Depositphotos

This article, "11 Tips to Always Keep Your Social Media Content On Brand" was first published on Small Business Trends